Starring:
Date: October, 4th, 2009
Summary:
A war begins…
"Jasper, Basil and a Staring Contest"
Company Headquarters
Meryl has been in some sort of mood recently. It's not exactly bad, or good, or normal. Well, normal for Meryl, anyway, which is to say, completely abnormal at all times. But she's been sort of introspective since she got back from Greece. Introspective. That's one of those words with a lot of meanings. Given what happened in Greece - something Meryl's told people little about so far - it's reasonable for her to be in such a state.
The door to her office is wide open, with a statue of Napoleon, most likely swiped from someone else's office, propping said door open. Meryl is at her desk, elbows resting on the table, with her head in her hands, and her green eyes are just staring forward as she loses herself in her thoughts. Thinking. Thinking.
A young woman with dark brown hair is preparing to walk past Meryl's office when she notices the door is open and the statue. Kitty looks at the statue with a grin and she enters Meryl's office. She knocks on the door as she enters and raises an eyebrow up at the woman.
Well she looks.. different. Kitty runs a hand through her hair and tilts her head at Meryl, eyebrows raising in a question.
Meryl's response is a sigh.
And a shrug.
And she also crosses her eyes, just in case Kitty misinterpreted anything she happened to say-by-not-saying. It's only because Meryl is incapable of giving anyone a straight answer, and crossing her eyes just confounds the matter entirely. Excellent. After a moment, after it seems that Kitty isn't about to leave, she gives a half-nod to the chair across her desk, which looks like it's been chewed on by a guinea pig named Basil. It's an invitation to sit, should the other woman want to.
Blinking at the crossed eyes. The brunette gives Meryl a particular look, this is her friend after all and takes a seat. She places her chin in her hands and her elbows on the desk. She blows a strand of hair out of her eyes and looks upwards as she watches it flutter back onto her face.
Her legs are crossed as she looks at Meryl. From the look on Kitty's face, she hasn't had a very good day.
It's Meryl's turn to arch her eyebrows. She knows that look. It's one that Meryl's had before, albeit rarely. The mark of a bad day! Company agents all over the place have had many Bad Days, though they knew that was one of the perks when they took the job.
From behind Meryl comes the soft sound of Basil running in his giant guinea pig wheel.
So, how to remedy this situation? It's easy to see the wheels turning behind those green eyes, which narrow just slightly. OH. OH. Perfect idea. Staring contest! Locking eyes with Kitty, Meryl smirks. First one to blink loses!
The psychometer looks at Meryl and then that look enters her eye and Kitty knows what she is proposing. With a light grin and a arch of her eyebrow, she lays her bag on the ground. It moves as if something is in it.
Kitty's eyes are focused on Meryl's but not in the too wide, stretched way that makes it easy to blink. She's just relaxed.. for now. OH NO YOU DIDN'T! Her looks says to Meryl and she snaps her fingers.
Meryl is used to winning. She WILL win this!
Because, as anyone can attest, Meryl sometimes just zones out and doesn't blink for a really long time.
But in a staring contest, you can't help but notice certain things. They're friends now, but once upon a time…
There's no blink when Kitty snaps her fingers. She just keeps staring, endlessly staring. It would be so easy now to tell a joke, alleviate the silence, get Kitty to look away, or blink, or both, but Meryl remains quiet. She can see Kitty. Never really bothered to look into her eyes before. It's always hard to do that with the ones you've bagged and tagged.
One toe reaches under the desk and nudges Kitty's leg.
The younger woman's hands grip the desk tight and she opens her mouth in a wide grin. Her foot then comes up to nudge Meryl's other leg. She waggles her eyebrows without blinking and then just seems to become a total zombie just staring in Meryl's eyes.
Her fingers begin to drum on the desk, making a slight rhythmic pattern to it. Her head tilted. You wanna go there?
When you're responsible for someone's capture, you usually don't ever look into their eyes again, because the guilt - yes, Meryl feels guilt - comes flooding back. It stings. Maybe it shouldn't, because, after all, she was just doing her job. It's possible that the whole thing that just happened in Greece really got to her.
This staring contest was a stupid idea.
It's not because she intends to use this against Kitty necessarily, or to win the staring contest, because that's pretty far from her thoughts right now. Still, she states, apropos of nothing, "I'm the reason you're tagged."
BLINK BLINK.
"You.." Kitty says and she looks.. well shocked. Meryl is someone she considers her friend. For some reason the woman always had the thought that whoever bagged her had left the Company or something.
"Why didn't you tell me before.." Kit says softly and looks down at the desk. Her feet are drawn together and her eyes begin to water.
"Look, don't cry," she says, coming around the desk to put her arms around Kitty's shoulders. She doesn't explain why she didn't tell Kitty before, because, well, this. Meryl doesn't like seeing people cry! Unless she's punching bad guys. If bad guys cry, that's perfectly okay, because bad guys SHOULD cry. With that in mind, Meryl should probably be crying right now, 'cuz she made herself a bad guy here. "It's not so bad. If it makes you feel any better, you totally shot Ben. It coulda been worse, you know, we coulda ear-tagged you r' somethin' like… cows." She winces. Bad idea to go there. "I'm tagged, too! Yeah, I was curious, right, and I just, well, I can't show you, 'cuz I tagged my bum, but I am tagged! S'not so bad. I mean, hard to sit down for a couple days, and I guess the Company could theoretically find me anywhere I went. I guess I'd have to cut off my arse if I didn't want them to, and it's a nice-looking arse, so I'd rather keep it…"
"Benji too?" Kitty is in state of shock and disbelief. "What in the world.." she says aloud and looks up at Meryl. Her lips quivering and hands trembling. "You.. lied to me?!" Kit looks around the office and then spots Basil, running around the floor.
SO CUTE
Kitty's eyebrows raise and she stands up from the chair quickly. Her gaze narrows and she looks at Meryl, "I found this today, on the street. Thought you would like to train it as a friend for Basil, you would get a kick out of it."
The brunette picks up her bag that was rummaging around earlier and she puts her hand in, a noise can be heard..
IS THAT A CAT?!?!
"But I guess.. Nevermind." Then Kitty does the unthinkable and she pulls a black cat out from the scruff of it's neck, it's yellow eyes go from Kitty to Meryl to.. FOOD.
The cat yowls and Kitty throws the feline towards where Basil is running around in the ball.
Meryl's mind is having a conversation with itself, as it so often is. How did you THINK she'd react, you dope!? it asks. I don't know, she answers. Perhaps with a little more decorum because she's a COMPANY AGENT. No, no, I think if you tell people that you tagged them, they have a right to be upset. Well, yes, that's a very good point, but…
"Basil!" Meryl shouts as the cat, having been figuratively released from the bag moments earlier, is now literally out of it. It lands on the ball, the ball pops open, and now there's a guinea pig running free in the office with a cat keeping up with it fairly well.
"Last time I tell you anything," Meryl says, diving for the cat. Not before it manages to sink its claws into Basil's backside, which draws a high-pitched scream from the little rodent.
"Meryl, honey? Have you seen my —" just what Benjamin is looking for is not made clear because the moment he catches sight of what's going on. Well. About facing and leaving sounds like a good plan, yet he's drawn to staring as if this were some sort of madcap train wreck. There's a .. how do you describe this scene?
"Jasper no!!" Kitty says even though.. she is the same woman that just released the cat, isn't she? Kit looks to Benji and then back to Meryl, Basil and the crazy cat who is hungry. Tears are beginning to fall down Kitty's face.
"I wasn't thinking.. she told me that.." then the light clicks in her head. "You helped tag me!" Kitty says and her hand is out and swatting Benji on the arm and the forehead and then leg. "Why.." Swat.. "Did.." Swat swat.. "Do that." Swat swat swat.
Meryl can take care of a couple animals! One hand goes out for Jasper's scruff, and the other for Basil. She looks very stern as she looks between them, lips pursed into a thin line. "You two make up and be friends, dammit, or I'm shaving you both." She will do it, too. Ask anyone. One time she shaved another agent's head just because he wouldn't smile and play nice with all the other agents.
"Be nice," she says again, before dropping the cat and cuddling Basil to her chest. He's not too badly hurt, just a little shaken and jittery. Later, Meryl will bandage him. "Sorry, Ben, I had a staring contest to win." …As if that clarifies everything.
"Ow, hey, what! Orders! You know that by now!" Benjamin is suddenly torn from staring at the carnage in front of him to being swatted at by Kitty. He reaches out a hand to push at Kitty's forehead, attempting to stave off the round of swatting by holding her at arm's length. "Standard procedure and one that comes in handy as I'm sure you've noticed!" He throws a look to Meryl and shrugs off her explanation. Honestly? It's the most normal one he's heard from her. Ever. Or he's just /that/ used to her by now. "Do I even want to know what's going on here? Are you two trying to create trouble? We don't need more than we've already got."
Huffing and puffing, Kitty looks at Benji and then back to Meryl and then to the ground. "You should have told me earlier." She says softly and looks up into Meryl's eyes. Her gaze wavering and watering. "I'm sorry." She says and looks down at her fingers. "I was being immature." She says and folds her arms across her chest. The young agent does look sorry, but still hurt by Meryl.
Her eyes close and she reshoulders her bag, closing it tight.
"Oi, no hard feelings," Meryl says. She rarely remains angry for very long, though she's not particularly happy about the whole releasing a cat at Basil thing. "Basil's tough. He's an agent. He knows he'll have a few battle scars here n' there." Still, she can't help looking to make sure he's not bleeding too profusely. "See, he's okay." Holding Basil up ass-first to Kitty, she shows off the shallow punctures where Jasper caught him. The laid-back 'pig farts in Kitty's general direction.
"Of course, you know I'm going to have to get you back for this." Oh mischief. "But don't cry. I told you now, you know now, and — and I don't know. Ben, this is where you give us a pep-talk and tell us we're all winners in God's eyes or something."
"Look, it's not easy, knowing about that. Been there, done that." Benjamin just didn't know until he joined the Company just what those marks were for or realized how they got there. "I got to know the Agent who tagged me very well, and we have no hard feelings." Knowing well in the Biblical sense too. "Uh.. you're not crying are you? It's not something to cry about! If something happens, you can be found easily, think of it that way!" Meryl's given a look, and his nose wrinkles up slightly at Basil, "Meryl, what have you been feeding hi.. nevermind, I don't want to know."
Kit coughs and waves her hand in front of her face. "Meryl.. I don't you. No more beans for Basil.." she shakes her head and then smiles softly. Ahh the strangeness of the Company. Get her back?
Kitty raises an eyebrow at this and puts a hand on her hip, that looks like a challenge on Mer Master. Benji is given a look. "At least I know it was my friends that did this to me.. ok that sounded weird." Kitty scratches her head. "No more beans for Basil."
"Did what to you? I'm tagged, too. If you really wanna see, I'll show you. But I warn you, I've also been shot down there before, and torn apart in a car wreck. It's not pretty. I'd recommend just taking my word for it." Really, take her word for it.
Meryl puts Basil up on her shoulder, and he scurries to get behind her hair and out of the range of the hungry cat. "Take that," Meryl says, indicating Jasper. She's not ready to deal with a cat yet, and, despite external appearances, she's a little ticked off. Reaching over, she tugs down the collar of Ben's shirt, if allowed. "See? 'e's tagged, too. Comes in handy sometimes. When he goes out renting adult movies and frequenting strip clubs, I just boot up the ol' GPS and take bets with the other agents." WHERE'S HE GOING TONIGHT?!
"Not really. I've lived weirder." Benjamin's not going to divulge personal details to Kitty. "Meryl, you tagged yourself," he points out, "and we really don't need to see that, or your scars." That's not for communal sharing. He then swats at Meryl half-heartedly when she grabs the collar of his shirt, "Hey! I've only been to a strip club once! Church dragged me!" And he was scarred forever by seeing Niki there. Or he would still be scarred if he could fully remember the incident. "And I only rented those movies because you asked for them!"
The young CEO looks back and forth from Meryl and Benji. "Did he get the kind with the big old ladies and the young guys?" she tilts her head and puts the bag on the desk. Her mouth opens into a grin but she is still going crazy inside of her head.
"And the scars aren't necessary, you sent pictures to my phone before, remember?" she says softly. Benji is given a look as she listens to him.
"Did not," is her response to Kitty. She probably did, actually. She's not drunk often, but when she does get there, look out.
It's pretty awesome.
"Look, maybe we should all just go our separate ways tonight. Meet up later and discuss things like rational human beings. Or aliens, as you two are. I'm sure we can all still be rational. I'll take my medication" Which, notably, are those little candy buttons on paper strips, "and you two just be yourselves. Now, if you'll excuse us, Ben and I have some honeymoon time to catch up on."
Benjamin raises a hand and presses it to his face, rubbing slowly. "Are you two done?" He looks from Kitty then just stares at Meryl, "Like what? The last interrupted 24 hours?" While incredibly used to Meryl, sometimes her bluntness can be on the embarassing side still. "Or further reports we have to give and write up?"
"Yeah, we can talk later.' Kitty says absently and she grabs her bag from the desk. " Sorry Meryl, is the look she gives the older woman. Basil is given a look and then she begins to leave the room. Off to her home, where she will cry a little bit more and then eventually stop being a baby.. Meryl has won.. for now.